The Smell of Jasmine
by ProserpinaHades
Summary: Few months after Seto Kaiba left Egypt things are starting to get busy again. Not only is it impossible for him to forget everything that happened during his trip to the past, but there is also this new enemy rising from the depths of a long forgotten world. Naturally Kaiba is not happy when Yugi selects him as one of his most trusted companions to fight against this new evil.
1. A Dream of Jasmine

**Disclaimer: I do not own Yu-Gi-Oh!**

**Author`s note:** I am not an English native speaker, please take that into account when you allude me to any grammatical mistakes or spelling errors I will probably make. Nevertheless your comments and critical advises are of course always welcome, so please feel free to give me hints about the mistakes I make (I have no beta reader so far), so I can correct them, just don´t be too harsh about it, I am trying...:-)

**The Smell of Jasmine**

Her hair smells like jasmine. Her pale skin underlines her shining bright blue eyes that are looking up to him and glister like a single raindrop on a flower that is illuminated by the sun`s fading light. They pierce right through him demanding some kind of answer, demanding a reaction he is unable to give. She talks fast and swiftly about some evil destroying the world and about a shadow lingering in the depth and creeping upon these times. He understands nothing and he doesn't care. What shadow could face the light without fading? She looks fragile and beaten, her dress is dirty, her skin bruised, but her voice is soft and her touch lingers on his skin after she bids him farewell with the promise to see him again. The world goes dark as she leaves and he follows her to keep the light shining.

He sees a man holding her, crying over her lifeless and pierced body. Too late. Nothing could be done, nothing could be repaired. He doesn´t know the man, but he feels his sorrow, he feels his pain, he shares his longing after something that can`t be brought back as though it had originated from his own soul. The man covers her with a dirty brown blanket and leaves. Slowly he leaves his hideout. He stands in front of her covered body. He sees a strain of her pale white hair leaking out under the blanket, a dead reminiscence of the life that seemingly a moment ago had still sparkled in those blue eyes, this pale skin, this shining hair, those kind words that were no more. He does not lift the blanket too afraid to discover that this one moment of light in his life is truly gone, that his world is dark again and that he doesn`t care about it. He does not mind leaving the truth under this cover as long as he does not have to see it with his own eyes, as long as he can still succumb to his illusions, there is no need to crush them with visualized reality. So instead of rushing into the devastation and sadness that awaits him under this blanket, he decides to be angry. She had promised that they would see each other again and now she left him standing there alone in front of a dirty blanket that covers a hope and a thought he could not pursue anymore. With a shrug he turns around and leaves, the smell of jasmine still lingering in his nose, thoughts and dreams.

Seto Kaiba woke up. Not with a start and not fast. He was clearing his way through the thick layers of his subconsciousness, slowly wading into consciousness. He felt more and more heavy the closer he got to the reality of a world his body did not yet want to wake up to while his mind had already reached it. He opened his eyes, the dream still lingering like a trace of fragrance in the air, which he was unable to grasp or to follow. He looked at the electronic alarm clock on his nightstand that illuminated the room and his face in ghostly blue colors. Three o´clock in the morning. It had not been the first time he had had this dream. Since coming back from Egypt a few months ago it had kept him up in the night every now and then and had left him exhausted in so many ways that it could not solely be blamed on the lack of sleep. He didn´t understand why this dream kept coming back though. He was not sure what to believe of the things he had seen in Egypt, but one thing he knew for sure was that the past could not be undone, the future was all that mattered. He had always believed that, always lived after this concept. To him the past was a construct that some people used and created in their own ways to define and justify who or what they are. He had always pitied these fools, cause they hold onto things that could not be changed anymore and they orientated their future after thoughts and ideas that were not their own. So why did this dream still linger in his mind? Why could he not get rid of this feeling to want to change the inevitable cause of events that led to the girl`s death? He shook his head and tried to delete any thoughts of this dream from his mind for now, it would come back soon enough.

He sighed and swung his legs over the edge of his bed. He felt a headache coming and decided to fight it before it kept him from at least trying to get some more sleep. On other days he might have simply accepted the lack of sleep or working while being exhausted, but not today. This day was important to him, his company and the future of him and his brother. After reaching his goal of establishing amusement parks all over the USA and also Japan he intended to pursue his vision of creating the most realistic virtual video game the world had yet to see. The meeting was essential for KaibaCorp to secure a contract with one of the leading virtual game tech companies that would provide its knowledge and the technologies that had been created in this field so far. Nothing would stop him from getting that deal according to the conditions he would set of course.

He went to his bathroom in search of a headache pill, and in the hope that sleep would find him again as soon as he climbed back to bed. But hopes are for those who can`t take matters into their own hands, and this night Kaiba could not force his mind to rest even though his body demanded it.

At six o clock he turned off the alarm and got out of bed. He had not slept since he had woken up in the middle of the night and his headache had not gone away despite the painkillers that he had taken, and his throat felt sour, but it didn´t matter as it could not be changed; he just had to deal with it. He showered, dressed and went to the kitchen to have some coffee. He was not hungry at all so he skipped his own breakfast and started to make some for Mokuba. There was no cook in the mansion. Kaiba never liked having to many people in his own house, so there were only few who helped with the household. The gardener for example who came once a week, or the cleaning ladies who came twice a week and also did the laundry. Besides them Kaiba only relied on his two most trusted employees, Roland and Mat, as personal assistants, who kept his schedule in check, acted as chauffeurs for the brothers or took care of all the other smaller assignments that Kaiba delegated spontaneously to them, but they only came to his house when he specifically asked them to. Same went for the security team that took care of the grounds of the Kaiba mansion. They were not allowed to set a foot in the house except in case of an absolute emergency. Kaiba liked his privacy and he did not need maids or butlers to disturb the little quality time that he could spend at home with his brother. Kaiba looked up from his task as he heard someone coming down the stairs. Mokuba had always had a fine nose when it came to food, so naturally he came down just as breakfast was ready.

"Morning, big brother," Mokuba greeted him while rubbing the sleep from his eyes, though it did not stop him from eyeing his breakfast already happily.

"Good morning," Kaiba replied.

"Big day today, huh?" Mokuba asked between toast and cornflakes which he somehow managed to eat simultaneously.

Kaiba nodded and could not help but smile when Mokuba started coughing as his hunger for the breakfast came in conflict with his need to breathe.

"You might want to slow down a bit," Kaiba advised putting a glass of water on the table "it won`t run away".

"You never know", Mokuba smiled and drank the water "Did you have breakfast already, Seto?"

"Of course I had", Seto lied and turned his face away, he was never good at lying to his baby brother, but he did not want him to worry, he was already nagging enough about his brother not taking care of himself. No need to put fuel into the fire or give his headache more nutrition.

Mokuba eyed him suspiciously but said nothing to that matter.

Kaiba coughed and said to break the silence: "I need to go early to Kaiba Corp today and I guess I will be home quite late. Do you have any plans to keep yourself entertained for the day?" Kaiba knew from lots of experiences that Mokuba was kind of a hyperactive kid, who could not hang out by himself in the mansion the whole day waiting obediently for his big brother to return.

Mokuba swallowed a piece of toast and looked at his brother warily, his voice was low: "I wanted to meet with Yugi and the gang after school; they are going to go to the arcades to eat ice cream and try out some new computer games"

Kaiba remained silent for a moment. Over the years he had come quite accustomed to the gang being somehow a part of his life and activities but that did not mean he liked it very much. He did not completely understand why, at moments, he despised this group so much. Everything about them was how society imagined good functioning people should be. They helped each other out, they cared for each other, they encouraged and trusted each other, they could not go one step of the way without relying on each other and as admirable as this seemed to some people, it was not his way. He had learned the hard way to trust only himself in making the decisions that needed to be made, to take the responsibility for these decisions himself and not to whine about mistakes to friends or family. He had made some mistakes along the way, he knew that, but he was always willing to learn from them, he did not need other people to justify or excuse his actions for him.

But sometimes in one of those rare weak moments that he could not elude, he felt jealousy especially towards Yugi and sometimes, as strange as it may seem, also towards Joey, the mutt. The mutt seemed not to have a care in the world, he had no responsibility, he did not think before speaking and he did not have to mind what others may think of him as he always had his friends to back him up and tell him that everything he did, no matter how moronic it may be, was fine. Yugi on the other hand was different. He cared very deeply about everything and he was far away from being stupid or a moron. Kaibas dislike for Yugi Motou went at sometimes deeper than his dislike for the mutt. For Yugi it was natural to be at peace with everything and everyone. He did not hate, never. He always saw the best in people, always tried to explain or justify their faults, he had an aura of natural freedom, joy and happiness around him that aroused Kaibas envying. It was so easy to like Yugi Motou that Kaiba voluntarily chose not to.

He looked at Mokuba who still looked up to him with worried eyes. Mokuba was actually not much different from Yugi in his way of thinking and behaving but with him Kaiba of course did not mind.

Kaiba coughed. "Of course you can go, Mokuba" he said finally after his coughing had died down and was happy to see a smile rising on his brother`s face. Just because he did not like the geek squad, did not mean he would forbid his brother to hang out with them. They were not bad people and also not his enemies anymore.

"But be back at nine o' clock at the latest and take Roland as your bodyguard with you. And don`t forget the appointment you have with your new tutor at two o'clock. After you had so many troubles with the older ladies I asked the agency to find someone more suitable for you."

Mokuba`s face dropped a bit. He did not like talking about this topic. He found it sometimes hard to stay focused during his school lessons, resulting in him missing most of what the teachers were trying to put into his head. So Kaiba had hired a tutor to help him keeping up in class, as he himself did not have the time to do so. But so far the three tutors he had were not capable of managing him.

"These tutors are even more boring than my teachers at school, it´s not my fault, I am really trying but they always tell me to not do things that could actually be fun", Mokuba complained.

"Well swinging from tree to tree imitating Tarzan while your tutor is trying to tell you something about tree species and local animals is certainly not the way to behave", Kaiba retorted.

"That was just one time. I had sat in class all day long, I needed to stretch my legs", Mokuba mumbled and actually managed to look a bit guilty.

Kaiba sighed. Mokuba was not easy to handle, he knew that, but he had not given up yet. He did not expect his brother to follow in his footsteps and score the highest grades in every single subject. He actually explicitly did not want Mokuba to follow this path, because Kaiba knew what it had taken of and cost him to achieve these grades. He had endured it to ensure a better life for his brother and he intended to keep it this way. But on the other side, his brother was quite smart and could certainly do better at school, if he could just stay focused on one thing for more than 5 minutes. The teachers had advised Kaiba to engage an additional tutor or to give Mokuba meds that would calm him down, but Kaiba had resolutely refused to drug his little brother, so he had decided to go with hiring a tutor to help. Of course, Mokuba was not too happy about it.

"I explained your ..ah.. special situation to the agency and I am sure they will find somebody who will make things more interesting for you, but Mokuba, I expect you to behave better this time, I am not going to tolerate this much longer. You don`t have to excel in school, you know that, but I expect you to at least try to give it your best." Kaiba did not like to be strict with his brother but from time to time it was certainly necessary.

"Yeah, big brother" Mokuba said quietly and his eyes dropped to his knees.

Kaiba got up. "I am sure you will do fine", he said and ruffled his brother`s hair. "I have to go now, don`t be late for school"

Kaiba coughed again, his headache was still not gone and his throat started to hurt more. Damn it, he was never sick he thought to himself and he would certainly not succumb to any weakness of the body today. He didn´t care about tomorrow, but not today.

"Seto, are you all right?" Mokuba asked, his eyes shining big and already moist with worry.

"I am totally fine, Mokuba" Kaiba tried to assure his brother.

"Did you sleep?" This question caught Kaiba a bit by surprise, because he had never told Mokuba about his dreams or the sleepless nights he suffered because of them. He decided to ignore the question.

"I have to go now, don´t forget your appointment and don´t get to close to the mutt." With that Kaiba left the kitchen and went to the already waiting limo outside of the mansion.

Mokuba looked after his brother with worried eyes. Since coming back from Egypt his brother had changed noticeably. Well maybe not noticeable for someone who didn´t know Seto as well as he did but still so much that Mokuba thought he had a reason to worry. It was not only that he looked generally more exhausted and tired than usual, but also his character had changed. His brother had never been the type to socialize or to go out with people his age, but he had at least always shared his thoughts with him, his brother. But of late Seto had become more quiet and calmer. He had given up on playing Duel Monsters and it seemed like he solely lived for his little brother and the company, there was nothing else anymore. All the goals that Seto had set for himself were reached and the new ones seemed shallow like a very poor substitute for something that really mattered.

Well his employees probably didn`t mind a calmer and more quiet boss, but Mokuba knew better. This was not how his brother used to be, the fire was gone, the torch burned down and Mokuba felt like he was standing in the rain trying to create a spark that could bring the light back.

He had asked his brother about what had happened in Egypt, but Seto would not tell him. Sometimes he said that he could not remember or that he had just visited some antique sights to find out more about the origins of Duel Monsters, other times he would just ignore the question or plainly tell his brother that he didn´t want to talk about it.

Either way Mokuba was desperate enough to ask Yugi and the others for help, maybe they did know more about what had happened to Seto in Egypt even thought it meant going behind his brothers back. But first things first… There was still the problem with this new tutor…


	2. Meeting Kisara

**Chapter Two: Meeting Kisara**

"So Plato tells us with his allegory of the cave that…"

Mokuba only half listened. The teacher had gone on and on about this dude called Plato, who lived like a million years ago, and came up with some cave story, that, going by the look of his fellow pupils, nobody really understood. He looked to his knees, where his cell phone lay. He could not remember the last time he had played Tetris, but he had just recently rediscovered the game as a very good tool to kill the boredom that overcame him every time he entered this classroom.

"…isn´t that correct Mr. Kaiba? Mr. Kaiba, are you still with us?"

Mokuba looked up upon hearing his last name.

"Huh?" He asked irritated.

"Good morning and welcome back to class, Mr. Kaiba," the teacher said sarcastically und got a few laughs from the suck-ups in the first row. "I just asked, Mr. Kaiba, what it is that we all can learn from Plato`s way of thinking as it is displayed in the allegory of the cave?"

_Oh crap,_ Mokuba thought. What could you possibly learn from a story about a dude sitting in a cave looking against a wall and seeing shadows? He had no idea and really did not care. There was no way out now and if you go down, Seto always said to him, then go down with a bang. He stood up.

"Well I have just learned that Plato maybe should have written more adventure stories that are actually capable of getting the reader's attention than focusing on dudes living in a cave."

The class laughed and he could see some of his friend giving him thumbs up.

But he could also see by the changing colour of the teacher`s face that this answer might not have been the one he had intended to hear. He swallowed hard as he saw and heard the frustration of his teacher, who had just reached the final frontiers of his tolerance, or maybe he was even beyond…

Mokuba sighed as the school bell rang. Finally he could get out of this rotten classroom, reminiscence of all the boredom he had to endure all these years and especially today. How could anyone possibly like learning or going to school. Nothing he had learned so far was of any importance; he doubted that Seto knew about this dude called Plato and his story about that stupid cave. He tried to imagine Seto bringing in his knowledge about an ancient philosopher during one of his meetings, it was ridiculous. But because of his answers during class, the teacher had been furious. Now he had to write an essay and hold a presentation in class about Plato`s thoughts expressed in this cave allegory and Seto had been invited to a talk with the principal about Mokuba`s behavior in class. His brother would not be too happy about it, Mokuba feared, and actually regretted his behavior in class for the first time. His brother was stressed out enough already, he certainly did not need the extra problems his little brother caused at school. Maybe, he thought, he could talk to his teacher and apologize sincerely, or at least try to, maybe that would leave Seto out of the picture.

He looked at his watch. It was nearly two o`clock he had to meet his new tutor in ten minutes at the school library. Well, maybe they could immediately discuss this Plato thing. The essay and the presentation was due next week and he totally didn't get this cave story.

He went to the library and just briefly checked over his shoulder to see that Roland was trailing behind him, like always. He really disliked having a bodyguard and having all of his actions overseen and followed, but he also understood the necessity of it. In the past it just had happened too often that people tried to abduct him to get to his brother.

He stopped in front of the library entrance and checked the surroundings; nobody of the people standing there looked like he or she could be a tutor. And when this white haired, pale and beautiful young woman went his way, he did not understand who she was until she stood right in front of him and reached out her hand to him.

"You must be Mokuba, I am your new tutor, my name is Kisara."

Slowly Mokuba took the outstretched hand and shook it. He could feel his mouth hanging open, but it took him a couple of moments to send his brain the order to close it.

Her voice was like velvet, soft and comforting. It seemed to Mokuba that there was no need for her to speak loudly, because when she opened her mouth the world around her turned silent to listen.

"You are my new tutor?" He exclaimed loudly, breaking the spell of her quiet words. "You can´t be my tutor, you are way too young and too pretty. You…" He stopped and his face turned red, embarrassed by the words that his eagerness to please her had sent out through his mouth before his brain had the wits to think them through.

She laughed "The other tutors already told me about your …ah…let`s say honesty! I am sure we will have lots of fun together."

Mokuba smiled widely when he heard her laugh and he actually believed what she said to him.

"Well" she continued "why don´t we go to the city and have an ice cream or something to get to know each other a bit and then we can also discuss what we can do about your little attention problem."

Mokuba nodded happily, maybe this terrible day could still turn into something good. He sent Yugi a text message to tell him that he would arrive a little later at grandpa`s game shop than he originally had intended to.

"So," Kisara began the conversation after Mokuba had gotten himself the biggest ice cream cup he could find on the menu, Kisara herself had just ordered two small balls of ice cream and a coffee, "what shall we have a look at first, where do you have troubles following?"

"Well", Mokuba replied while stuffing himself with more of the 'Banana-Chocolate-Tower' "I have no troubles in math or physics, but I really dislike languages and at the moment my biggest problem is philosophy. We talked today about this Greek dude Plato, I didn´t get a word of it, but I have to hand in an essay and hold a presentation about the cave story next week." He decided to keep to himself why he had to do all of that.

"The cave story?" Kisara looked puzzled "you mean the allegory of the cave where Plato explains about his theory of ideas?"

"Sounds about right" Mokuba replied with a smile.

"Hmmm" Kisara made and looked to the sky.

Mokuba could not keep his eyes from her and, as he noticed, he was not the only one. Several men and also some women looked at her with jealous or admiring eyes. Kisara just looked so different from anyone he had ever seen, that it was only natural that she aroused the curiosity of everyone around her. She was the one book in the library that stood clearly out from the others, that everybody wanted to read but maybe nobody completely understood. Kisara did not seem to notice, she still looked at the sky and was sunken deeply in her own thoughts. After a minute she directed his eyes back to him and she started laughing.

"How fast can you eat that?" she exclaimed, pointing at his empty ice cup, her voice ranging between admiration and wonder.

"Years of training", Mokuba replied with a grin.

"Yeah, I can imagine that" Kisara laughed, but then turned serious. "I have been thinking, Mokuba, if you still have some time, maybe we could start already today with one of the lectures and I will explain to you Plato`s allegory of the cave. It won`t take long and I will try to make it interesting for you, I promise."

Mokuba`s face dropped a bit and he looked at his watch. He had told Yugi he would be at his place at five o´clock so he actually still had one and a half hours, but he had hoped that today he would not have to think about this Plato dude anymore. But as he did not want to disappoint Kisara, he agreed.

"Awesome", Kisara smiled and Mokuba knew, he had made the right decision as long as he could keep her smiling.

"Let´s go to the park" she took him by the arm and let him to the park that was right next to the ice cream parlor. Roland, of course, was trailing behind them.

"Sit on this bench" she ordered him and pointed to one of the many wooden benches that were scattered all over the park. He obeyed. He felt the warm sun on his beck and actually felt quite comfortable.

"Okay, do you see the shadow in front of you?" she asked

Mokuba looked down and saw that the sun cast a large shadow of his body sitting on the bench and of Kisara`s body standing behind him.

"Yes", he replied.

"Okay, just imagine you represent all the people that are living in this world. And the bench and the shadows that you see in front of you are all that you are capable of seeing in the world that you are living in. Let me give you an example. What is this?"

He looked to the shadow and saw that she had vanished behind the bench and was doing shadow figures with her hands.

"I guess that was supposed to be a dog", he replied confused.

"Of course it was" she replied and sounded a bit offended, but Mokuba was not sure if she just did that to tease him.

"And this?"

"A duck"

"And this?"

"A rabbit"

"And this"

Mokuba looked at the shadow and then turned around to Kisara.

"I have no idea what that's supposed to be", he told her honestly

"Tssss, a tree of course" she replied and rolled her eyes.

"Yes, of course" Mokuba grinned. "But what are these shadows suppose to tell me?" He asked her. He had no idea why she did all that.

"Excellent question. You see, Plato thought that we live in a world that is represented just by shadows of the real things, the ideas, as he called it. Nothing we see comes close to the truth and to get close to ityou always have to question the things that you actually see, the real answer is never so easy to find. That`s why Plato thought only philosophers could reach true enlightenment and wisdom, because, you know, they think about stuff more than other people do."

"He was quite full of himself, wasn`t he. I mean being a philosopher himself and all,, Mokuba asked, listening intently.

"Well.. yeah maybe, but his thoughts are actually still up to date, if you think about it."

"So what he wants to tell us is that the real world lies beyond the world we can actually see. And that we always have to question everything we see to get closer to it."

"Yeah, you could say that, that´s the basic. Just like the shadow duck I just made. It was not the real image of a duck, it was just a shadow and that`s how Plato imagined our world to be like."

"Pretty crazy dude, huh?"

"Yeah, all the ancient dudes are actually a bit crazy" She laughed. It sounded wonderful.

"I actually think I got that, it was not that difficult." Mokuba admitted and was surprised that he had not found this lesson boring at all.

"Okay, that's good and next time we start working on your essay and think about your presentation, okay?"

"All right!" Mokuba said eagerly and for the first time ever he was really looking forward to his next tutor-meeting.

**Author`s note:****Dear readers, I hope you did not find this chapter too boring its main purpose was just to introduce Kisara. In the next chapter Mokuba will meet with Yugi and his friends and the new evil will be introduced. Also Seto will reappear in the next chapter, so please keep on reading and review! :-)** **Greets P**.


	3. Secret Societies

**Chapter three: Secret Societies**

Mokuba arrived at five o`clock at Yugi`s place. He had arranged with Kisara to meet again in two days to discuss his essay and the presentation. He could not wait to tell the others, and of course Seto, about the new friend he had made today.

But when he entered the game shop, he immediately felt that something was off. Everybody was there, Joey, Tea, Tristan, Yugi his grandpa, but that was not all, also Rebecca Hawkins and Isis as well as her brother Marik occupied the small game shop.

That was odd, Mokuba thought, what were they doing here, and why did Rebecca look like she had been crying for a long time. Her eyes were red, her cheeks wet, and her pale face reminded him of the moon shining without hope in a starless night. Everybody except Rebecca looked up as he entered the room. All of them looked sad, stunned or in Joeys case angry.

"What happened?" Mokuba asked and directed his question to all of them, but it was Yugi who answered.

"Ah Mokuba, I am sorry I have forgotten that you wanted to come by. We have a big problem." He looked to Rebecca who began sobbing again and to Isis whose grave face turned graver by the minute.

"A problem, what do you mean?"

Yugi took a deep breath.

"Professor Hawkins was killed two days ago, while researching a newly found pyramid in Egypt." Rebecca`s sobs grew louder and fresh tears rolled down her face.

Mokuba couldn`t believe it. He had met Professor Hawkins during the Grand Championship games, he had been a very kind and friendly older man, Mokuba had liked him. He looked at Rebecca, who was laying now in Teas arms crying at her shoulder and his heart reached out for her. He knew how it felt to lose someone important and he felt sorry for her.

"Why?" Mokuba simply asked and Yugi seemed for a second lost for words, as he as well had looked at Rebecca and could not bring himself to answer Mokuba`s question immediately. So Isis took over. Her voice was hushed, and he could detect a hint of guilt in it, when she started speaking.

"A couple of days ago a strange pyramid was found by accident during other archaeological excavations. The archaeologists on site had not the knowledge to identify their unexpected discovery so they send us pictures of the inscriptions they had found outside of the pyramid. As we examined the pictures we came to the conclusion that the pyramid could actually be the legendary Toth-Pyramid and we sent Professor Hawkins to investigate the archaeological site. We told him that it might be dangerous to do so, but he wanted to go anyway." Isis stopped and took a breath, giving Mokuba time to pose another question.

"Why was it dangerous? I have never heard of this Toth-Pyramid."

It was Isis` brother Marik who answered now.

"The Toth-Pyramid is not well known. It`s existence was concealed from the general public, because it holds a secret that could endanger humankind. After the evil Pharaoh Atem and Pharaoh Seto had fought against was beaten, Pharaoh Seto knew that there was always a chance, the darkness could return. Pharaoh Atem might had defeated the root of all evil, but the darkness in people's hearts can never be overcome completely. Humans will always try to gain power, they will always be jealous and they will always be capable to lie and hate. So Pharaoh Seto thought of something that would prevent this from happening. Together with his priests and the power of the original seven millennium items, he developed two more millennium items, a mirror and a book. The millennium-mirror could detect and reflect people's innermost evil thoughts and feelings and would bind them to the millennium-book, where they would be sealed in. With these two new items the people of Egypt were purified, and for a very long time they did not have to endure the terrors of war, and they lived happily and in peace. When he felt his death coming, Pharaoh Seto founded the **_Toth-Society_**, to keep the book and the mirror safe and to teach future generations of priests, how to use these new millennium items, so that Egypt would never have to suffer under the hate of humans again. But as it often happens in history, a knowledge that is only shared by few people can easily be lost and while the **_Toth-Society_** continued to exist, even up till today, the knowledge how to seal away people`s hate was lost. People forgot how to read the holy hieroglyphs and up till the 19th century it continued to be like that. So after a long time of peace, war erupted again in Egypt and the **_Toth-Society_** hid the millennium-book and the millennium-mirror in a pyramid to keep them safe." Marik stopped and looked around. Everybody was listening intently and even Rebecca had stopped her sobbing and was looking at Marik with curious red eyes.

"Okay," Mokuba stated "but I don`t see why this pyramid is so dangerous, why would anyone attack an archaeologist that explores it? I don`t understand."

Isis took over again. "Even though the knowledge how to use these items was lost, the legend of the pyramid and the hidden millennium-items were still known to some. And without the power of the mirror and the book, evil could fester itself once again in some people`s hearts. So a few hundred years after the millennium-items had been hidden in the Toth-Pyramid, another society was formed, the **_Seth-Society_**, named after Seth the Egyptian good of chaos. True to their eponym their goal was to create chaos in the world and to benefit from it. Mercenaries, blacksmiths, aristocrats and all the other people that thought, they could profit from war, joined the organization. They wanted to find the book and the mirror to release the thoughts and feelings of darkness that had been sealed in them for such a long time to darken people`s hearts. The **_Toth-Society_** tried hard to stop their plans and so these two societies fought a secret war over the centuries. Eventually neither of the two organizations was actually capable to find the pyramid anymore and the fights died down, but both societies still exist up till today."

"But why my grandfather," Rebecca asked with a broken and quiet voice that slowly turned to anger "why did you send him? He was already old, why did you not go yourself, Marik?" Rebecca buried her head again in Tea`s shoulder, who began to stroke the blonde`s hair reassuringly.

"Your grandfather was, as well as we are, part of the **_Toth-Society_**," Marik replied sadly. "As soon as he heard that the sacred pyramid had been found, he begged us to send him there, he thought it was his duty to explore the pyramid, and so we let him go. Isis and I still wanted to find out more about the pyramid in some ancient scripts that we had found in the library, so we thought he could go ahead and we join him later. We did not expect the **_Seth-Society_** to find out about the finding of the pyramid so soon, but we were wrong."

"So, it was this **_Seth-Society_** that killed Professor Hawkins?" Joey asked, his fist clenched and his face full of rage and anger.

"That´s quite possible, but we are not one hundred percent sure", Isis replied and Joey took down his hands and looked at her in bewilderment.

"What do you mean, you are not sure? Who else could it have been?" Tea asked, she had stopped stroking Rebecca`s hair.

"When we did not hear anything from Professor Hawkins, we went to the archaeological excavation and found the body of Professor Hawkins, and also of two other men."

"Two other men?" Yugi asked.

"Yes, "Isis explained, "not only Professor Hawkins was killed as he tried to explore the secrets of the pyramid, but also two other men, who, as we later found out, belonged to the **_Seth-Society_**."

"But then who…?" Joey looked confused, but he was not the only one.

"We believe that the priests of the **_Toth-Society_** who hid the millennium items in the pyramid took precautions and installed deadly traps and tests so that only those, who knew how to enter the pyramid on safe ways, could do so."

"But let me guess" Joey interrupted Isis "the knowledge how to enter the pyramid got lost too."

"Unfortunately, yes. The two dead men of the **_Seth-Society_** were found close to the entrance of the pyramid, I guess they were killed by one of these traps. But we don`t know about Professor Hawkins, he was found not far away from the other two, but we don´t know if they killed him or if he also fell victim to the wickedness of the pyramid."

"I see," Yugi mused "that´s why you don´t know yet, how Professor Hawkins died."

"There is something else you must know. We did not dare to enter the pyramid, but we saw the inscriptions at the entrance. It seems that only skilled duelists, who are capable to fight the shadow game, are allowed to enter. Only duelists have a chance to pass the tests and to retrieve the book and the mirror from the depth of the pyramid."

She took a deep breath and looked over to her brother who nodded. She looked back to Yugi, went over to him and rested her hands on his shoulders.

"Yugi, we know that the **Seth-Society** started to recruit good duelists all over the world to send them into the pyramid. They want to find the millennium-book and the millennium-mirror to bring darkness and chaos back to this world. We need to stop them and get the millennium-items out of the pyramid before they fall into their hands. We need a team of the best duelists to fulfill this task, we can´t let them win the race. We need you." She looked over to Joey "And you too of course, Joey."

Yugi looked at her with big and unsure eyes. Mokuba actually thought he saw some tears shining in them.

"I don´t know, Ishizu, if Atem was still here, I…"

"Pharaoh Atem will always be with you, Yugi," Ishizu interrupted him. "You are his reincarnation; a part of his soul has always belonged to you. All the courage he has given you, now is the time to use it"

Yugi looked at Joey, Tristan and Tea.

"What do you guys think?"

"Of course we are in," Joey exclaimed loudly and Tea said,

"I mean we are not duelists, but we won´t let you go alone, Yugi, it concerns all of us." Tristan nodded and smiled warmly at Rebecca. "Yeah, and I certainly want to get these guys for what they did to Professor Hawkins."

The others agreed.

"Yugi," Grandpa Mutou began, "I am not sure about this, it sounds too dangerous, if my good friend Arthur could not manage it, what can…"

"It`s all right grandpa," Yugi interrupted him and looked to his friends, we have lived together through so many dangers, we will watch out for each other, it will be okay." He tried to reassure the old man who still looked skeptical.

"Maybe I should go with you, I am also a good duelist and I don´t want to send my grandson alone, to face such dangers."

"I am sorry grandpa, but maybe we have to run away fast and you have a weak heart, it´s even more dangerous for you to go." Grandpa Mutou made a grunting noise that sounded quite dangerous.

"Marik will go with them and help them completing this task," Isis tried to stop the quarrel between Yugi and his grandfather "and Mr. Mutou, I will need you to assist me in a different matter. Someone has to keep an eye from the outside on the Seth-Society, I can´t do this alone."

"But you are still only three good duelists then," Rebecca had been quiet this whole time, but now she looked ready to take matters into her own hands. She had wiped the tears off her face and gave everyone in the room a challenging look "the team should have one more skilled fighter, I will also go. I was regional champion and I have every right to go, I want to avenge my grandfather and stop this **Seth-Society**."

The room turned silent. Mokuba could see the uneasiness in everyone's eyes. On the one hand Rebecca was certainly too young to join this dangerous adventure, but on the other hand she had every right to claim a spot in the team.

Finally it was Isis who spoke: "Rebecca, I know you want to go for the sake of your grandfather, but I also need you to help me research the Seth-Society. I don`t have the computer skills you possess and we need to get more information on them, so we can anticipate why they want to create chaos in the world this time."

"But I…" Rebecca tried to contradict, but Tea interrupted her.

"She is right, Becca, you are definitely needed outside of the pyramid. They need your help there."

Rebecca sighed and looked with skeptical eyes to everyone, but nodded finally.

"We will begin with the preparations for our journey immediately, so by the end of the week, in four days, everyone should be ready to fly to Egypt," Marik stated. "But Rebecca was right with something, we should still recruit one skilled duelist. And it would actually be good, if that certain someone can read the ancient hieroglyphs." With that he looked at Mokuba and also Yugi, Joey, Ishizu, Tea and Tristan turned to look at him.

"Huh, you don`t mean me, do you?" He asked shocked, but then he realized who they were talking about.

"Seto," he whispered.

* * *

Kaiba came home with a terrible headache. It was eight o´clock and he could not remember the last time he had felt so tired and worn out. He coughed. Everything had worked out the way he had planed it, but the triumphant feeling that would normally overcome him, when he ended a deal in satisfactory way, was nowhere to be seen. The meeting had been very long, the negotiations had not been easy (the representative of the virtual game tech company had been a pain in the ass) and he had felt his concentration drifting away like a leaf on a river by the end of it. Still he got his contract and KaibaCorp would soon be provided with the newest inventions of virtual game technology, so that they could start developing virtual video games.

The meeting still in his head, he made his way to the living room and collapsed on the couch, he did not care that he was still in his business suit. He actually still had to work a bit, but right now he could not lift a finger. Soon he fell into a light slumber.

_"__We will see each other again, stranger" she says before she passes him, her eyes shining, her face anxious, but determined. Her long white hair brushes his face as she starts to run, smelling like jasmine. He wants to touch it, wants to know if it feels as silky as it looks, but he can`t lift his arm. He looks after her, seeing her white hair blowing in the wind. He knows what will happen to her, he remembers her being carried in front of the stone of the blue eyes white dragon, he remembers looking down upon her and silently mourning over her dead body. But he does not stop her. Why can he never stop her? Again he follows her to the temple. He does not want to follow her; he does not want to see what will happen, once she reaches the temple. But maybe not this time, he thinks, this time he can stop her, before she reaches her doom, before she runs to this other man and dies in his arms. He runs faster. The world shrinks to a tunnel, there is only him and her and he knows he has to catch her, before she reaches the end, but the faster he runs, the longer the tunnel seems to get. He sees her reaching the end of it, her body illuminated by the merciless sun´s light and he knows, he is again too late to save her from her fate. He is desperate, and his heart shatters as he hears her whispering his name, "Seto"._

This time Kaiba awoke with a start, his heart was still racing, his body sweaty and his cheeks wet. Had he been crying? He lifted his arm to wipe the tears away, when he realized that it was not possible. He looked around and felt something pulling at his arm. Mokuba was kneeling at his side looking up to him with worried and teary eyes.

"Seto, are you okay? You were tossing and turning in your sleep, but I could not wake you up."

"I am fine, Mokuba, just a little nightmare," he tried to reassure his brother, but had a hard time even convincing himself. Something was not right, he knew that. These dreams seemed so realistic, and the more often he had them, the more it felt like it was harder and harder to wake up from them. Sometimes he felt like he was trapped in this world of dark memories that one part of his mind wanted to stay in, to see the white haired girl, while the other part desperately tried to find a way out, because it knew, what would happen to her. It was not the first time in his life that he had nightmares. He still remembered a time when he constantly woke up in the night, hearing his stepfather`s scream, when he threw himself out of the window. But this was different. It felt like he could actually do something against these dreams this time, he just did yet have to find out what.

He freed his arm from Mokuba`s grip, clutched the bridge of his nose with his thumb and forefinger and started rubbing it slightly. While sitting up, he let out a deep sigh of exhaustion. He still had so much work to do, he did not know where to start and this dream was still lingering in his head, making it hard for him to focus on anything at all.

"How did the meeting go?" Mokuba asked after a pause, still eyeing him suspiciously.

"Everything went according to plan and we can soon start developing virtual video games," Kaiba informed his brother, a hint of pride in his voice.

"I expected nothing less," Mokuba laughed, but it was a short laugh, Kaiba noticed. He looked at his brother; he could feel that something was bothering him.

"How was school and your meeting with your new tutor?" he asked him.

"Oh," Mokuba looked like he had been somewhere else with his thoughts completely. "Well school is school, you know, always the same, nothing interesting ever happens, ha ha, "Mokuba replied and laughed nervously and because his brother eyed him suspiciously, he quickly went on, "My new tutor is awesome; she is really pretty and still so young and it`s actually lots of fun to be around her. Maybe I should introduce her to you," Mokuba wickedly smiled at his brother.

Kaiba rolled his eyes. The last time his brother had introduced him to a woman had not ended well.

"I don´t think that`s such a good idea, Mokuba."

"Yeah I know," Mokuba retorted and Kaiba could see that he also thought about the ending of the last meeting.

Kaiba got up from the couch and stretched his heavy arms and legs; it did not help. He looked at his little brother who had become quiet again and wore a sad look on his face. Kaiba felt sorry for him, he knew he should spend more time with the kid, but right now he neither had the time nor the energy to do so.

"I am sorry, Mokuba", he said "next week everything will have calmed down a bit and then I can maybe take a day off, but right now I still have to work." He made his way to his working room, when Mokuba stopped him.

"Wait, Seto, I still have to tell you something."

* * *

**Dear readers, if you made it till here, well then thanks for reading, I guess :-) I hope you did not get too confused with the two societies and everything was explained satisfyingly. Please let me know, if its´worth to continue this story or if you find it boring. Don´t want to waste anyone`s time :-) In the next chapter Kisara will be back and you will find out, if Seto can actually be convinced to be part of yet another world-rescue mission, well that is, if you want to know, of course. Waiting eagerly for your reviews. Greets P.**


	4. Convincing Kaiba

**Hello everyone, here is my newest chapter of "The Smell of Jasmine", I hope you will like it. First of all, I would like to thank everyone who reviewed or favourited this story, especially Aqua girl 007 who reviewed every chapter so far. Your encouragements keep me going, so please give me more of it :-) (Constructive criticism is of course also very welcome!).**

**I was aked, if I wanted to integrate more characters of the memory world into my story. So far it was not part of my plan to do so, but even though you have a general plan for your story, you never know what turns it might take in the future, so I will definetly keep this idea in mind. **

**And now, on with the story, please review and let me know, what you think of it!**

**Greets P.**

* * *

**Chapter Four: Convincing Kaiba**

"Mokuba, you are the only one who can convince Kaiba to come along, he won´t listen to anyone else," Yugi had said to him and Mokuba knew that he was right. After the group had concluded that his brother was the last missing member of the expedition, they had discussed several ways how to convince the CEO of KaibaCorp. Some were more reasonable than others. While Joey thought it might be a good idea to storm Kaibab's office and punch the agreement out of "the rich boy, who should stop being so damn ignorant and finally see the importance of the things that really did matter", Yugi and the others favoured a different approach. The king of games believed that Mokuba was the only one who might have a chance to get through to his brother, so he should tell him all about the Toth- and the Seth-Society, the pyramid, the dangers and the expedition and try to convince him to come along and fight by their side. Now that Mokuba thought about it, it did not sound that easy anymore as it had appeared to him an hour ago. So Mokuba thought the whole way back to the Kaiba mansion about how to convince his brother. He came up with several plans and possibilities, about which courses the conversation with Seto could take, but in the end he gave it up. He knew his brother better than anyone else and so he also knew better than anyone else that Seto was unpredictable.

When Mokuba came home and called out for his brother, he did not get any reply. He was worried that he might still be at KaibaCorp, but he found him as soon as he entered the living room. Seto lay on the big couch that occupied the center of the room. He was still in his business suit and it looked like had had collapsed on the couch as soon as he came home. Mokuba approached him quietly, not wanting to wake him up. Seto looked totally exhausted. He lay on his stomach; his head supported by his right arm, while the left one dangled from the couch with the fingers nearly touching the floor.

And even though he felt sorry for all the stress Seto had to deal with, Mokuba felt pride that he was the only one who was allowed to see his brother this way. But maybe, Mokuba thought that was also part of the problem. If only the others could see that his brother also had a weak side, maybe they could understand him better. They had no idea, what he had been through and of course Seto always tried his best to convince everybody that he could do everything on his own and nothing could harm him, but Mokuba knew better. He was pulled out of his thoughts when Seto suddenly moved and started talking. Mokuba looked at his brother, his previous calm face was distorted and it looked anxious and frightened. He must have a nightmare, Mokuba thought and tried to wake him up, but it did not work. He shook his arm and called out his name, but still Seto tossed and turned on the couch and Mokuba could hear him whisper "No" and "Wait" and some other words that he could not figure out. Mokuba even saw a tear streaming down his brother's face and he started to panic. What kind of nightmare could his brother have? He pulled harder at Seto's arm and even screamed his name as loud as he could. Finally Seto awoke with a start. Mokuba could see the confusion in his eyes, like he did not know or realize where he was. He tried to lift his arm and only then became aware of his little brother's presence who was still holding onto it, like his life was depending on not letting go.

Mokuba was worried about his brother. Now that he was awake the dark shadows under his eyes were even more visible and his face looked pale and sweaty, but of course when he asked about his brother's condition, he would deny that anything was wrong with him. The impregnable walls that he had built up around himself over all the years were back up and even Mokuba could not overcome them. So instead they talked about school and his new tutor, but it was difficult to have a normal conversation and Mokuba found it hard to approach the topic he actually wanted to talk about, and he was also not so sure anymore, if he really wanted to. His brother looked so exhausted and stressed already, maybe it would not be good to load more upon his plate, maybe Yugi and the others could find someone else. There were more good duelists in the world, why did his brother have to join the expedition? But Mokuba also knew that nobody was as good as Seto, and it was a very important mission.

As his brother stood up to leave for his working room, ready to add another circle under the big shadows that made his eyes look hollow, he still did not know what to do, but he stopped his brother anyway.

"Seto, wait, I have to tell you something."

His brother, already at the stairs, turned around.

"What is it, Mokuba?"

Mokuba looked at the CEO's tired eyes and his worn down posture and decided that it was not the right time, if there ever was one.

"Well, I had a little problem at school today and my teacher wants you to make an appointment with the principal." It was the first thing that had come to Mokuba's mind, and as soon as he had said it, he realized that it maybe was not the best.

Seto sighed and shook his head.

"Again, Mokuba? Can't you just pull yourself together in class, at least once?" He asked tiredly.

"I am sorry, Seto. I will deal with it, maybe if I apologize, I could fix it,"

Mokuba expected his brother to get mad and to be grounded for a couple of weeks, but Seto just nodded and proceeded to his working room and Mokuba heard him mumble, "Tomorrow, I will deal with everything tomorrow."

Damn, Mokuba thought that certainly did not go as planned.

* * *

The next day Mokuba met again with Yugi and the others after school.

"And, what did Kaiba say, is he going to come along?" Yugi looked at Mokuba with expectant eyes.

"Well, you see…," Mokuba started, but was interrupted by Joey.

"Ah, I just knew it, Moneybags is not coming along. Well, he has probably more important matters to handle than saving the world. He is not that good of a duelist anyway, we can find a replacement in not time."

Tea slapped the back of Joey's head.

"Didn't Kaiba wipe the floor with you, every time you challenged him into a duel?"

"Pah, that was years ago, today I would not even lose one life point against him," Joey stated confidently.

"Hmm," Tristan intervened "if I remember it correctly, the last time was only a few months ago. Don't you remember, right after Egypt, when you said to Kaiba that if you cannot duel the Pharaoh you would like to kick the ass of the next best duelist you could find. And didn't you come to cry at my shoulder right after the duel?" He pointed at his jacket, "here you can still see the stains your tears left on my jacket."

Joey got angry. "You spilled your drink all over yourself yesterday and how dare you tell people I cried. It was the salt water in my eyes, I…"

Tea rolled her eyes and said to Yugi and Mokuba, "this could take a while, maybe we should go to another room."

Mokuba and Yugi agreed and while Tristan and Joey still discussed the shape and colour tear-stains would leave behind on a blue jacket, they proceeded to Yugi's room and shut the door.

"So, what did Kaiba say?" Yugi asked again.

"I did not ask him", Mokuba confessed and looked to the floor.

"Why not?" Tea asked.

"It's difficult for him at the moment. He is not in a good shape. Ever since he came back from Egypt, he does not sleep anymore and if he does, he seems to have bad dreams. I don't know what happened in Egypt, but he has changed since then. All I know is that he had some vision about the past, but that's all. Maybe you guys know more?"

He glanced at Tea and Yugi with expectant eyes.

"We don't know much about what happened to Kaiba while he was in the memory world. We only united with him in the end, when we battled Zorc, and Atem never told us what Kaiba saw. He said that he had no right to tell," Yugi answered.

Mokuba nodded, "I see, well Seto won't tell me either. But something must have happened. He completely stopped dueling once he came back and threw himself into his work. I mean he was always busy and kind of a workaholic, but he has never been like this. It seems like he does not want to have any free time. And this week has been the worst so far, he is completely exhausted and he looked sick, I don't think that this expedition would do him any good, maybe he is not the right one at the moment, can't you find somebody else, Yugi?"

Yugi gazed at Mokuba with worried eyes and then shook his head.

"I am sorry, Mokuba, but your brother is the only one I would trust with an important mission like this. And he understands the ancient hieroglyphs, you remember how he easily he deciphered the ancient symbols on the Egyptian God Card of Osiris?"

Mokuba nodded.

"Plus he is the best duelist I know, there is no one who could replace him satisfyingly."

At this Joey and Tristan stumbled into the room. Having overheard the last part of the conversation, Joey asked: "What do you mean the best duelist you know, Yugi?"

Yugi turned red and played with his fingers. "Well you see Joey, Kaiba has these strong cards and the intelligence…"

"What?" Joey burst out, but Tea smacked him on the head yet again.

"Cut it Joey, Kaiba is better than you and we need him," turning towards Mokuba she added, "let's go to KaibaCorp now, we need to convince him, there's no way around it. Let's do it together."

Mokuba nodded still not totally convinced.

"Okay, if it's really the only way, we can try, but leave the mutt here; I don't think he is going to be of any help."

Joey gasped for air, but Tristan cut him short before he could say anything,

"Well you had that coming, Joey, stop insulting his brother."

"Fine," Joey sulked "but I will come along. I am not going to be left behind."

* * *

Kaiba sat at his desk in his office, working furiously at his Laptop, when his secretary announced via intercom that Mokuba was there to see him.

"Send him in," he replied, but did not stop working on his Laptop.

He heard the door opening but to his surprise heard also more than one pair of feet entering. He looked up.

"Hell, no," he murmured, upon seeing Mokuba coming into the room with Yugi, Tea, Tristan and the dog.

"Yeah, also nice to see you, rich boy," Joey started and Tea kicked him.

"Be quiet," she rebuked him.

"Fine", he murmured and took a step back.

Kaiba regarded those two in surprise, but did not say anything; instead he turned to Yugi with a sigh.

"What do you want, Yugi, make it short." He started typing on his Laptop again, but out of the corner of his eyes he could see Yugi nervously playing with his fingers, what could it be that they want, Kaiba thought.

"Well, Kaiba, we need your help." Kaiba didn't look up.

"Tell me something that's new, Yugi." He retorted dryly.

"Why, you arrogant jerk, I lost count of all the times we came to your rescue." The mutt said from the back and Kaiba inspected him with an expressionless face.

"Well, that's because you can't count," he replied and watched amused how Tea and Tristan tried to hold Joey back from jumping over his desk.

"Maybe we should take him outside," Tristan said to Tea who nodded.

Kaiba could not help it.

"Yeah, take the dog for a walk," he added and could not help but smile slightly as Joey started to rampage even more. He could not remember the last time he enjoyed something that much. Well, it was always fun to see how easy it was to antagonize the mutt.

After they were gone, Yugi, tried to get back on track.

"Yeah, ah, well, Kaiba, ah, something has come up and we desperately need your help."

Then he told him another one of his tales. This one being (of course) about the past, about strange societies called Toth and Seth, a book and a mirror, he called millennium-items, a tricky pyramid only skilled duelist could enter, about the demise of Professor Hawkins, the world being in danger yet again and other stuff he really did not care about. He only listened half heartedly and did not stop working while Yugi told his story. When he finally stopped talking, after what seemed like an hour to Kaiba, Yugi looked at him with expectant eyes, awaiting some kind of answer. For a moment Kaiba was confused, maybe because he had not listened properly.

"That's all very interesting, Yugi," he said sarcastically, "but what does it have to do with me?"

"You have to come with us into the pyramid to get the book and the mirror, before the Seth-Society can lay their hands on them, to cause war and chaos in the world."

"You're kidding, right?" Kaiba could not help but wonder if Yugi really expected him to come along, he could not be that naïve, and he saw Mokuba glancing at Yugi with a look that said "I told you so".

Yugi took a step forward.

"I know that you have a lot to do Kaiba and that it is maybe not a convenient time for you to leave your company…"

"You have no idea," Kaiba murmured to himself, but Yugi did not let himself get irritated by it,

"…but if the Seth-Society gets the millennium-items before us, the whole world will feel the effects of it and you and your company won't be an exception."

Kaiba started to get angry; he had heard enough of this nonsense.

"To hell with the world, Yugi, I don't care. Ask someone else, there are enough duelists out there you can bother, don't waste my time, it's precious."

"But Kaiba," Yugi tried to argue "we need the best duelists in the world for this, it's too important to just ignore it. And you are familiar with ancient hieroglyphs, you can read them, there are not a lot of people who can do that."

Kaiba was taken aback by Yugi's last words and he could feel the last strings of his patience were snapping. Yet again his past would interfere with his daily life, he had enough of it.

"Out. Now.", he stated simply and underlined his words with his index finger that pointed towards the door.

"But Kaiba…"

Kaiba stood up and towered dangerously over Yugi and Mokuba. "I said out. Now," he growled dangerously his voice only a whisper and Mokuba started pulling Yugi away from the desk.

"Come Yugi, we will discuss this later." He looked at his brother "See you at home, Seto." Then he pushed a dumbfounded Yugi out of the door and they were gone.

* * *

Kaiba massaged his temples with his fingers and let himself fall back into his chair. As if he had not enough to deal with as it was, Yugi always found the worst time to come up with another world-endangering problem. For a second he thought if he maybe should have considered hearing more about it, but he dismissed this consideration as soon as it came up. They would find someone else to save the world.

With that he tried to continue his work, but he found himself unable to do so.

"You are familiar with ancient hieroglyphs, you can read them," Yugi's words still bothered him. How much did the imp know about his trip to the past? What had the Pharaoh told him, before he left? Again he rubbed his temples to get rid of the festering headache, it did not help. He decided to take a short break and told his secretary that he did not want to be bothered for the next twenty minutes. Then he closed his eyes.

He woke up ten minutes later by the buzzing sound of the intercom. He pressed the blinking button.

"What?" he barked "I said I did not want to be disturbed."

To his surprise his secretary did not answer, but opened the door to his office.

"There is someone here to speak to you, Mr. Kaiba, it's urgent," she said.

Before he could rip her head off for disregarding his orders, she admitted entrance to a man in his mid fifties, Kaiba had never seen before, and left quickly, closing the door behind her.

The man smiled widely at Kaiba and without being asked to, made himself comfortable in one of the chairs in front of Kaiba's desk. He did not say anything, just quietly looked at the CEO with disturbingly cold green eyes. He was quite thin, Kaiba noted and nearly as tall as he was. His hair was black with fine streaks of grey in it. He maybe would have been considered attractive for his age, but Kaiba did not care about these things.

He regarded the man with cold eyes, trying not to be irritated by the odd and impolite behavior. A minute must have passed and the stranger still had not said a word. Kaiba gave in; he did not have time for games like these, he still had work to do.

"Who are you and what do you want," he asked straight to the point.

The smile on the stranger's widened and Kaiba could see his shining white teeth. The man cared a lot for his outward appearance, Kaiba thought to himself.

"Mr. Kaiba, it's so nice of you to receive me on such short notice," his voice was soft, smooth and oozing with derision.

Kaiba stayed calm, he was certainly not the first guy that thought he could outsmart him and he would not be the last. He waited for the man to continue.

"Well you see, Mr. Kaiba, there are lots of rumors about you flying around the heads of those who are interested to listen, like busy flies in the air." He actually giggled. His childlike behavior did not really fit with his businesslike outward appearance and it gave him the dangerous aura of a madman.

"But there are so many flies in the air, I can't distinguish what is true and what is false, I am helpless" he sighed with fake desperation.

Kaiba rolled his eyes to show that he would not be irritated by it "Get to the point, man, I neither like nor have the time for flowery metaphors."

"So some rumors are actually true, Mr. Kaiba, you are a cold, calculating and honest bastard," the man retorted quickly checking his conversational partner for some kind of reaction, but Kaiba just shrugged his shoulders. He had heard worse.

"But you know, Mr. Kaiba, I came here to confirm a new rumor, I just heard a few minutes ago and it left me speechless." He covered his mouth with his hand to emphasize his words and Kaiba grew more and more irritated with this clown and his act, what did he want?

"I heard, Mr. Kaiba, and please correct me if I am wrong, that you actually declined a cry for help, you know, to" he raised his hands and made the sign for quotation marks with both of his middle and index fingers "'save the world' and I would like you very much to reconsider." His friendly voice was a taunt for itself and Kaiba sat upright in alarm and narrowed his eyes. Who was this man and how did he know about that.

"You see, I am also in this," again the quotation marks with his fingers "'saving the world business', but I kind of belong to the other side."

Kaiba was confused. What did he mean? He tried to remember what Yugi had told him about the pyramid, the societies and about the millennium-items and their purpose. It took him a few seconds to figure it out.

"You are from the Seth-Society", he stated and the man clapped his hands like a child that had seen an exciting circus show.

"Yes, Mr. Kaiba, very good! Another rumor confirmed, you are intelligent and you can think fast, that's just what we need."

Kaiba had heard enough. When had his office become the stage for a freak show?

"It's time to leave", he said "I will call security." He stood up and went for the button on the intercom that would alert his security team, but he was stopped by the other man who held out his index finger to Kaiba and moved it from side to side, like the CEO was some child that behaved badly.

"Ts, ts,ts, Mr. Kaiba we don't want to do things in haste now, do we? Spare yourself the embarrassment and sit down. Don't you wonder how I made it to your office?"

It was one of these rare occasions that left Kaiba speechless. While he was still searching for an answer, the other one regarded him with a wicked smile and asked, "Do you want some coffee? I could get us some."

Kaiba watched silently how the man took out his cell phone and typed a short message.

A few seconds later his office door opened and his secretary came in with two steaming mugs of coffee that she placed on Kaiba' s desk.

"Anything else I can do for you?" she asked with a sweet voice neither looking at Kaiba nor the other man.

Kaiba regarded her coldly. "You are fired."

"I know", she stated simply without looking at him and walked slowly to the door. When she passed the man who was still sitting comfortably and without a care in the same chair he had claimed as he had entered the office, he held out a check, which she took quickly.

"Thanks, dear, that would be all for now," he smiled at her and it made Kaiba sick. He saw how his former secretary quickened her steps by the end to get out of this room.

When the man looked back at Kaiba, a winning smile lay on his face. He stretched his arms wide in a triumphant gesture.

"You see, Mr. Kaiba, if you have enough small money, there are a lot of things you can do. And between the two of us, maybe you should treat your employees better. Then they would maybe not be willing to betray you so quickly." He shook his head and acted disgustedly.

Kaiba sat down in his chair. This man was dangerous, he realized and he had to think before he made his next move. If only his head would not bother him so much.

"You proved your point," he said after a few seconds "what do you want?"

The disgusting smile never left the stranger's face, whose name Kaiba still not knew.

"As you can imagine, Mr. Kaiba, your secretary is not the only one I was capable to lead on a path of betrayal and evil," he made a theatric gesture. "Your security team was also not so hard to infiltrate, as nearly all of them also have a family. You know, you should really choose your employees with more care. People with a family are so much easier to blackmail, as you probably already know, having experienced it yourself."

Kaiba understood and his heart skipped a beat, but he refused to let any weakness be shown in front of this man. "Mokuba," he whispered quietly.

"Ah yes," the man said with fake joy in his voice "you also have a family, Mr. Kaiba, isn't that lovely. But unfortunately for you, it's also your weak point." He held up his cell phone.

"You see, maybe instead of coffee, I could now order something else, like the little finger of Mokuba's right hand or maybe a toe."

Kaiba nearly threw his desk over has he stood up.

"Don't you dare to lay a finger on my little brother," he tried to cow the man, but at the same time he knew that it would not work, the other one held the stronger cards in his hands. For now.

"Hush, hush Mr. Kaiba," he laughed "your brother is quite all right for now. He does not even know that he is in any danger. Let me check it out for you", he offered in a friendly voice like he was doing the CEO a favor. He looked at his cell phone and pressed some buttons.

"He is still together with this king of games and his other friends. Everything is all right. You see no need to worry. But if you don't believe, I can understand. You would not want to trust a stranger when it comes to family business, would you? Lucky for you, I can fix that as well. I even want you to call him right now. And if you want, you can ask him how he is doing."

"Why?" Kaiba asked quietly, he knew that he had lost this round.

"I want you to tell him that you made a mistake and that you will be part of the expedition of the Toth-Society."

"Yeah I understood that, but why?"

"We have by far the worse duelists in our expedition team. They won't be capable to beat the team of the Toth-Society. I highly doubt that they would even be competent enough to get past the traps inside of the pyramid. But you on the other hand, Mr. Kaiba, are quite able to get what we want and as our spy you will even get the help of your "comrades to accomplish the mission. As soon as you have the mirror and the book, you will hand them over to us and everybody will be happy. Mokuba will keep his limbs and you can continue your exciting business life of solitude and misery."

"And the world will be filled with chaos and war," Kaiba concluded.

"What we do with the millennium-items, will be none of your business." The man took the phone on Kaiba's desk in his hand and held it out to him, his voice not so friendly anymore. "Call your brother, Mr. Kaiba."

Slowly Kaiba took the phone out of the other man's hand and dialed Mokuba's number. With few words he explained to his brother that he had made a mistake and would be part of Yugi's team. The joy in Mokuba's voice upon hearing that his brother had changed his mind pained Kaiba even more. After he hung up, the man nodded and got up from his chair.

"Thank you very much, Mr. Kaiba, it has been a pleasure to do business with you." He gave him a cell phone. "Contact us as soon as you have the items. We will watch your every move and we will of course have an eye on Mokuba. If you do as we say, nobody will harm him. Don't try to do anything stupid, Mokuba is such a pretty little boy." With that he turned to leave, but Kaiba held him back.

"When will I get to meet him?" Kaiba asked the man and felt some satisfaction as he saw the surprised look on his face as he turned back around.

"I beg your pardon?"

"The leader of the Seth-Society, when will I meet him?"

"What tells you that it is not me?"

"The dirty work is never done by those who are in command. I know that better than anyone else."

"So you figured that out," a hint of admiration was detectable in the henchman's voice "we will watch you closely, Mr. Kaiba. You will meet our honorable leader, once you have proven yourself worthy. Get the items and maybe he will honor you with his presence, when you give them to us. I will take my leave then."

He made a mocking bow and went out of the CEO's office, leaving the door open so that Kaiba could see the empty desk of his secretary.

See you at the bitter end then, Kaiba thought and went back to work.

His break was definitely over.

* * *

**Okay, while I was writing it, the chapter became longer and longer, so that I decided to make a cut at this point. Sorry! Kisara will definetly be back in the next chapter and the journey to Egypt will begin. If you are interested in more, please review and let me know!**

**Greets P.**


	5. Kisara's Story - Updating the Team

**Chapter Five: Kisara's Story - Updating the Team**

Kisara got up from her bed in the morning with this familiar feeling of emptiness and despair she felt every day and she had to concentrate hard to find the energy to get up at all. It was all she could think about day and night. If anybody had asked her a few years ago, what it was, she was thinking about, she could not have answered, as she did not know. It was just a feeling, like she had lost something very important, a memory she knew, she should be capable to grasp, but that was slipping through her fingers every time she tried. It was a craving that accompanied her, like a parrot sitting on the shoulder of its master, only that this parrot actually controlled the master. And with this hunger and thirst that could never be satisfied by food or drinks she had lived every day that she could remember. And never did she knew what it was she had to search for, never could she lay a finger on the wound that made her heart ache and her mind a slave of her yearning soul. All her thoughts, every breath she took to keep herself alive were dedicated to this one thing that left her soul incomplete, this one thing that would make her life worth living. But neither did she know what it was, nor where to find it, she just knew that something was missing in her life. She felt like a moth that could not find the light and therefore had to live in never-ending darkness.

But everything had changed approximately two years ago.

She had been working in a restaurant as a waitress, one of the many jobs she had taken upon during her years of travelling and searching. The restaurant had been full with customers, because it was the only one in that area that had a big TV, and at that time everyone wanted to see the half finals of this Duel Monster Tournament called "Battle City". Two years ago she had just vaguely heard of Duel Monsters and the combatants that participated in this half final, Yugi Muto and Seto Kaiba, and she really had not cared about it. She thought Duel Monsters was quite a foolish game and she could not understand why everyone was so fascinated with it. The duel had gone on for quite a while and all the guests had seemed pretty impressed with it, but she could not afford to spare even one glance, as she had been so busy with her work.

But then she had heard it. It had been a loud roar, a battle cry of a fearsome warrior, to some it may have sounded terrifying and gruesome, and she saw that some of the guests were actually flinching, but to her it was a music that touched her heart and soul, like a melody she couldn´t remember but also couldn't forget and that she had finally found after years of searching for it.

She had looked to the TV Screen and that was the first time she ever saw it. A beautiful and mighty creature had appeared over one of the duelists and she could not divert her eyes from it. Her plate with the drinks had dropped to the floor, but she didn´t care.

"What is that?" She had whispered to herself.

A friendly guest had come to help her with the broken glasses. "That's Seto Kaiba's Blue Eyes White Dragon." He told her with an admiring smile.

"Blue Eyes White Dragon?"

"It's one of the most powerful monsters in Duel Monsters and Seto Kaiba owns the only three cards in the world. Rumor has it, he tore the fourth apart, but I don't believe it. I wonder how Muto is going to hold himself up against that, now that the God Cards are out of the game."

"Thank you" she had murmured, collected the last pieces of glass from the floor and had left the restaurant, knowing that she would never return. She had found what she was looking for, what her heart and soul were aching to see every second of her life and she would get it, no matter what. The Blue Eyes White Dragon was the answer to the question she had asked all her life, the big missing piece of the puzzle of her soul. She had to get it, she didn´t know why, she didn't know how, but she would never feel whole again if she could not get a hold on this creature.

She had researched this man, Seto Kaiba, who owned the Blue Eyes White Dragon, and found out that there were only three things he really cared about, his company, Duel Monsters and apparently his little brother whose name was Mokuba. She had tried several times to arrange a meeting with Kaiba, feigning different urgent reasons, but of course she never got very far. She was a nobody and he apparently did neither care about nor meet nobodies.

So she had started playing Duel Monsters, she had participated in every tournament she could find, in the hope he would show up, in the hope that she could duel him for the Blue Eyes White Dragon or convince him somehow to give her what her heart desired. Or, if that did not work, she would just take what she knew belonged to her, no matter how (her morals regarding these things were not so high). And as it turned out Duel Monsters was quite a fascinating game and the longer and more often she played it, the better she got. First she only played the small tournaments, but she was a fast learner and it did not take long for her to be able to afford the cards she needed with the money she won, to also compete in the bigger ones. But Seto Kaiba had never been there and never did she catch a glimpse of the Blue Eyes White Dragon again. He had not even participated in his own Duel Monsters Tournament "The Grand Championship" and she had not been high enough in the world ranking by then to get an invitation anyway. It would be different today, as she was in the Top Ten of the World and could even finance herself completely just by playing Duel Monster Tournaments, but she never got closer to her original goal and that was all she cared about, The Blue Eyes White Dragon.

Then she had heard rumors that Kaiba had stopped playing Duel Monsters and she was devastated. Everything she had worked for had been futile, but she would not give up.

If she could not get close to him by playing Duel Monsters, maybe she could get close to other things that were important to him, his brother Mokuba for example. So for the last few months she had tried to get close to Mokuba, she had followed him to school, she had checked out his friends, his tutor lessons and occasionally she even got a glimpse of Kaiba. But they had always tons of bodyguards around, so she never dared to get closer. She had noticed that Mokuba was quite a lively kid and she had witnessed two tutors failing to get him under control. She knew that an opportunity had opened up for her to get closer to Kaiba, and she had made sure she got a job at the tutor agency Kaiba had used so far to hire teachers for Mokuba. Sure she had to fake some documents to get the job, but that would not hurt anybody and her morals regarding these things were also not so high that it would bother her.

As she was the youngest tutor in the agency (and as she had faked a document stating that she was a specialist with hyperactive kids), she soon got her chance to become Mokuba's tutor and with a bit of luck and patience, she maybe would also meet his bigger brother soon as well.

Today would be the second meeting with Mokuba and she had to say that she was actually looking forward to it. Mokuba was lively, but a very intelligent and cute kid, she had liked him from the very beginning.

She got dressed in simple jeans and t-shirt (she did not like too fancy clothes) and brushed her teeth. Before meeting with Mokuba she still wanted to pass the library to prepare some stuff for the lesson. Even though she may be a fake teacher, she was still eager to help Mokuba with his report and the presentation. On the one hand she was of course happy that all of her efforts to get closer to Kaiba finally showed some results, but on the other hand she could feel her bad conscience knocking on the door of her mind for using Mokuba, a small, cute kid, in that way. But she would not open that door, she could not afford to let feelings stand between her and her lifelong desire, not now, when she was finally getting closer.

* * *

It was a sunny day when she stepped out of her door and the light jacket she had taken with her just in case would probably not be needed. On her way she passed the little park and the ice cream parlor where she had sat with Mokuba on their first meeting and she had to smile a little.

"Such a nice day for a little walk in the park, isn't it, Miss Orest?"

She spun around. Behind her illuminated by the sun's bright light stood a man in his mid fifties with dark hair and incredibly white teeth. She did not recognize him. He was quite handsome, but the way he smiled at her put her on the alert. It was not a genuine smile and it didn't reach his eyes. She took a step backwards just in case.

"Who are you and how do you know my name?" she asked trying to sound casual, but she knew that he had immediately noticed the little strain in her voice, indicating her nervousness. His smile grew broader.

"Excuse me, but who doesn't know the famous Kisara Orest, number seven of the official world ranking in Duel Monsters and fastest ever to get so high in the ranking in such a short time, I am a big fan." His voice was oozing with sarcasm and he made a mocking bow.

She looked at him suspiciously; she did not believe a word he said. While she was known maybe to those who actually played the game, she doubted that this man just came to greet her, because he recognized her from a duel

"Who are you and what do you want?"

He pretended to be taken aback. "Miss Orest please, is this the right way to greet a fan?" He shook his head and let out a disappointed sigh "These young people nowadays. You know I had quite a similar conversation not so long ago. It's really getting harder and harder to talk to young people in a good fashioned manner." His seemingly sweet voice changed drastically and became deeper and darker.

"So let's get down to business, Miss Orest."

"I have no interest in talking to you any longer." She simply said, turned around and started walking, but was stopped almost immediately as the stranger grabbed her arm.

"I was not finished yet, Miss Orest and you better listen to my proposal as we both may profit from it."

She tried to free her arm, but he had an iron grip that she knew would leave some marks on her arm later. She thought about screaming for help.

"Don't be too hasty, Miss Orest, my patience has limits and you sure don't want to step over the line, right?"

She looked at his cold eyes and she knew that he had no scruple to use whatever methods necessary to get what he wanted.

So with a short nod she indicated that she had understood and waited for him to continue.

"So why don't we just get more comfortable and start our conversation all over again. This place there should be good enough." He pointed to the small ice cream parlor she had been to with Mokuba two days before. "The 'Banana-Chocolate-Tower' Mokuba Kaiba ordered looked really delicious."

Her eyes grew wide. "You have been watching me."

He started laughing like she had just told an awesome joke and dragged her a bit roughly by the arm to one of the tables. He indicated her to sit and she did, still too dumbfounded by the information the stranger had just let slip through his words.

"Don't think too much of yourself, Miss. Orest. We were not watching you, we were watching small Mr. Kaiba, of course. But you turned out to be also of some interest for us."

"Why? And who is us?" She asked carefully, getting more and more uncomfortable. This man was very dangerous, she was certain of that and she did not want to get on his bad side for now. Before the man could answer, the waitress came to take their order and he actually asked for the Banana-Chocolate-Tower Mokuba had eaten two days ago. Kisara herself ordered nothing and she could not have eaten anything right now, even if she were hungry.

"Who we are should not concern you for now, but this should be more interesting for you." The man answered after the waitress was gone.

He pulled a brown envelope out of the inside of his jacket and gave it to her. She opened it carefully and took out some black and white pictures. She flipped through them and noticed immediately that Mokuba Kaiba was on every single one. On one picture he was visiting Yugi Muto and the rest of his friend, on the others he was coming out of school, entering his limo and so on. It took her a few moments to realize that it was not only Mokuba who could be seen on the photographs. She was also there, standing behind a tree, sitting on a bench, walking casually on the other side of the street. She looked up and saw the man smiling, the Banana-Chocolate-Tower standing in front of him. She had not noticed the waitress delivering it.

"You see, right?" He asked her with so much happiness and joy in his voice that it made her sick. She said nothing.

"While we were watching little Mokuba, we also caught you spying on him. Isn't that fabulous?"

Not really, she thought. "And what do you want now?" She asked "Are you going to tell Seto Kaiba that I spied on his baby brother? Or did Seto Kaiba himself send you to intimidate me? What do you want?"

The man laughed again wholeheartedly and pretended to wipe some tears out of the corner of his eyes. What was wrong with him?

"Oh, Seto Kaiba would be so mad if he heard that somebody thought I worked for him. And no, I am not going to tell Seto Kaiba, that would be quite counterproductive for what I had in mind."

"And what do you have in mind?" She asked impatiently, getting annoyed by having to worm every single piece of information of him bit by bit.

"You see, we were spying on little Mokuba to get something from Seto Kaiba and as you were doing the same, I thought maybe we could find an agreement that would suit both of us. Oh, and congrats on becoming Mokuba's tutor. Imagine our surprise as the little spy suddenly came out in the open." He tossed some more pictures on the table, displaying her and Mokuba eating ice cream and during their little lesson in the park. She tried to keep her hands from trembling as she took the pictures and regarded them.

"What makes you think, I did it to get something from Seto Kaiba?" She asked, frightened and also a bit ashamed that he came so close to the truth. He looked at her with eyes that were saying "don't insult my intelligence".

"Seto Kaiba is not a man that is persuaded easily and if you want something from him, the easiest and fastest way to get it, is by… let's say, taking a closer look at his little brother. Believe me, Miss Orest, I know."

The way he said it, gave her goose bumps and she could feel her arm hair standing up.

"So as one of the most talented duelists of the last two years, I could think of two reasons, why you want to get close to Seto Kaiba. Either you want to get a chance to duel him as he has not participated in any Tournaments over the last two years or you are after one of his precious cards that could catapult you to the top of the ranking, let's say for example the Blue Eyes White Dragon." He studied her intensely and she tried to keep her eyes calm and steady at the mentioning of the Blue Eyes, but she knew she had failed as she saw his triumphant smile.

"So the Blue Eyes White Dragon," he concluded "you are after his cards." He clapped his hands happily "Well, that can be easily arranged. You help us getting Kaiba under control and we will make sure the cards will be yours by the end of the mission."

"What do you mean?" She didn't understand a word he was saying, what mission was he talking about?

"Well, we asked Seto Kaiba to get some things that are quite precious to us. But you see, as expected he was not so willing to cooperate, so we…"

"… used his little brother for leverage," Kisara concluded shocked.

"Well yes, Miss Orest, you understand how this works don't you? Wasn't that your plan as well?"

She shook her head, she would have never done something like that. All she wanted, was to meet Seto Kaiba and get close to the Blue Eyes White Dragon, but she would have never used Mokuba in that way. _But still you did use him_, a small voice in the back of her head added and she could not get rid of it and deep inside she knew, she was paying the price now for her actions. The man smiled at her obvious confusion and continued with his explanation.

"As you can imagine, Mr. Kaiba agreed in the end to help our noble cause, but there is still one little problem. I don't trust him. He seems intelligent and ruthless enough to find a way around our agreement and here is where you come in. It will be your task to make sure that he does not back out of the deal. You will watch over him and make sure that we get what we want and as a reward you can have his Blue Eyes White Dragon if you are successful, isn't that a fair deal?

She did not have to think twice about it.

"No," she said firmly with all the courage she could muster. "I am not going to help you, I have no idea what this is all about, but it is definitely wrong and I don't care if you tell Kaiba or the police or somebody else that I spied on Mokuba, I am not going to do it."

She got up and turned to leave, but his laughter hold her back.

"I am so sorry Miss Orest that I actually made you believe you had a choice." He got up so quickly that she had troubles following him with her eyes. Suddenly he was standing behind her, both arms on her shoulders and his mouth close to her ear. His voice was cold, but his breath felt sickly warm and moist in her ear.

"Miss Orest, I had sincerely hoped we could do it the easy way, but if you insist on being unreasonable, I have to force you to see reason. If you don't do what I ask you to, I will make your life a living hell. In every shadow that you see there will be one of us watching your every move. And always will you wonder, when will they get me, what will they do to me and not only will I burn Kaiba' s Blue Eyes White Dragon, that you are so eager to get, right in front of your eyes, I will also make sure that you can never duel as long as you live. And don't even get me started on what we are going to do to little Mokuba of course, but that should actually only be Kaiba's concern, right? Anyway, did I make myself clear, Miss Orest?"

The pressure from her shoulders vanished as the man withdrew and she could feel her knees go weak. She let herself sink back into the chair. How had this happened again and why was it always happening to her? It did not matter what she did, where she went or who she met. There were always those who thought they could use her, play with her, oppress her. She had run away from home because of that, she had run away from the first man she ever had opened up to because of that, but now she knew, she could not run. They had trapped her like a mouse, and held a little piece of cheese in front of her to torture her even more, because even if she could get the reward, the trap would not vanish. There was no way out and she knew it. She felt a tear running down her cheek and absentmindedly she brushed it away. Bewildered she looked at her hand and saw the wet streak her tear had left on it. NO she thought to herself, there was always a way out, she would not sink back into self pity as she had done before. She would fight, not here, not now, but she would not give up. There was a time and a place for brave decisions; she just had to wait for it.

She inclined her head to signalize that she had understood and the smile returned to the man's face as he also sat at the table again.

"Very well, then let me give you the details of your little mission. It's actually very easy for you. If Kaiba behaves the way he should, it's no work for you at all." And then he told her about the pyramid of Toth, the societies Toth and Seth and about the two millennium-items she should help Kaiba getting and that she should make sure, Kaiba delivered to the society of the man, the Seth-Society.

"Very well," the man finally said "I will make sure that there will be an open spot in Kaiba's team."

"How?" she asked, not sure if she wanted to hear the answer.

"That is none of your concern," he answered sternly. "You are befriended with the Ishtar's, aren't you?"

"I know Ishizu Ishtar" she said, trying to avoid a direct answer to the question. She did not even want to know, how he knew of her connection to the Ishtar family. She was actually befriended with Ishizu since she had played a Duel Monsters Tournament half a year ago in Egypt that was held by the Egyptian Museum. She had won the contest and ever since she had stayed in regular contact with Ishizu who had been very kind to her. But she did not want the man to know that she cared about her, who knew what he would do.

"Well, I want you to contact her tonight. Call her and ask how she is doing."

"That is all?" She asked, not trusting the seemingly harmless act.

"That is all for now," he said, smiled sheepishly and handed her a cell phone.

"We will contact you for further instructions. Don't miss your meeting with little Mokuba and remember, we always have an eye on pretty ladies. It has been nice doing business with you," he took her hand and kissed it in a gentlemanlike manner. She wanted to slap him. Hard.

After he was gone, she still sat at the table for a couple of minutes, trying to process what just had happened. Then she got up, went back home and took a shower. She felt sweaty and dirty.

* * *

It was ten o'clock in the evening when Kaiba arrived home. Next to his usual business he had tried to arrange everything for his absence in the next week (he sincerely hoped it would not take longer), and find the leaks in his security team without letting anyone notice, what he was searching for, but it had been futile. If his men were threatened with hurting their families, it could have been any single one of them. In the end he had run out of time and had given up on finding the breech. They would leave for Egypt tomorrow and he still had not packed. For now he had to do what the nameless stranger of the Seth-Society had told him to do, but he did not intend to play along for very long.

Maybe he could pack tomorrow, he thought to himself. He felt like shit, his headache was even worse than usual and he actually felt a bit feverish. Just the condition to go abroad, fight some life and death duels and protect his brother, he thought sarcastically. He was really getting to old for this crap, but then he realized that it was maybe a weird thing to think for a man in his early twenties.

He opened the main door to the mansion and Mokuba practically flew into his arms.

"Setooooo," he screamed "you're finally home!" Kaiba barely caught Mokuba in his arms before both of them could fall to the ground. Brotherly love could have quite an impact, he thought with a smile.

"What are you so happy about?" Kaiba asked after freeing himself out of Mokuba's grip.

"Well, I knew that you would be home late today, because you had to prepare everything for your absence next week, so I packed everything for you already." He smiled proudly, waiting for his praise.

"That's great, Mokuba, thank you very much." He ruffled Mokuba's hair and made his way over to the couch. So one problem was at least taken care of and he was very grateful to his little brother. He quickly got rid of his tie and his shoes and made himself comfortable on the couch, Mokuba followed him.

"How was your day, kid?" Kaiba asked his little brother.

"Oh, great. I had the second meeting with my new tutor today. She really helped me a lot with my presentation and the essay that I have to hand in next week. I think it will blow Mr. Yamamoto away."

"Mr. Yamamoto?"

"My philosophy teacher, Seto. The one that wants to make you talk to the principal, but I arranged that already, you don't have to go."

"Oh yeah. That's good." Kaiba had totally forgotten about Mokuba's little school problem as it seemed so insignificant compared to all the other problems he had to deal with.

"Well anyway, even though she helped me a lot today, she seemed a bit odd, like she was sad or something. I don't know. I did not dare to ask. Unfortunately we can't meet next week as she has to go on some kind of business trip, but that's okay, I guess, as long as the presentation is going to work out. Say Seto, have you ever heard of a Dude called Plato and his cave story?" He saw Mokuba giving him a challenging look.

"You mean the allegory of the cave where Plato explains his theory of ideas?" Kaiba smiled at his brother whose mouth stood wide open.

"How do you know?"

"I actually paid attention in class."

"Also during philosophy classes? I mean they are so boring."

"They are not as boring as you think they are, it teaches you a lot about life and makes you think about your actions and choices. It's really not so bad." Mokuba looked perfectly astonished, probably surprised that his big brother actually liked philosophy. It was so easy to make his brother happy or curious. His thoughts drifted off to their time in the orphanage, when he had always thought of new games to keep his brother busy and happy, so that he had no time to think about their parents or other stuff that made him sad. He felt himself slowly drifting away to sleep and he heard Mokuba's low voice like it was coming from far away.

"Well my new tutor also thinks it's very interesting and she really explains everything so that I can understand it. You really should meet her once, Seto, she is such a nice woman and she is good looking, she would be perfect for you." He looked at his brother with expectant eyes. Kaiba had the feeling he should say something, but he had not really listened to Mokuba's little chitchat so he just asked, "What? Wait? Who?"

"My new tutor, Seto. Are you even listening?"

"Sorry kid, I am very tired. I will meet with your tutor, if that makes you happy, once I am back from Egypt, okay?"

Mokuba looked perfectly happy with that, his eyes shining.

"Awesome, Seto, I am sure you will like her. Do you want to watch a movie?"

"Sure, kid, whatever you want." he replied, already feeling his eyelids dropping. Just a few minutes he thought dozily, then he would go to bed. He heard Mokuba getting up and searching through their DVD collection.

"Seto?" Mokuba sat back on the couch holding some kind of animated movie in his hands.

"Hmmm?"

"I am so glad that you are going to help Yugi and the others. I know how much stress you have because of it, but it was the right thing to do."

Kaiba opened his eyes and regarded his brother who looked at him with teary eyes. He still looked so much like the little child he had protected in the orphanage. Out of an impulse he sat upright and took his brother in his arms.

"Yes," he murmured quietly "it certainly was the right decision."

Seto could see that Mokuba was quite surprised by his sudden emotional outbreak, but did not have the time to react to it, as the telephone rang suddenly.

"I'll get it," Mokuba said and ran energetically to the phone.

Kaiba lay back on the couch and closed his eyes, he heard Mokuba's voice coming distant from the other side of the room, but he did not really care who would call so late, probably one of Mokuba's friends. No manner these kids nowadays, calling so late….

"Seto? SETO!"

"What? Yes I am awake." He sat upright. He had not heard Mokuba coming back to the couch. His little brother looked troubled.

"What is it, Mokuba, what happened?" Kaiba asked concerned.

"That was Ishizu, apparently something happened to her brother Marik and she wants you to come to an emergency meeting at the game shop."

"Now?" Kaiba asked perplexed, checking his watch for the time, it was close to eleven and they would leave tomorrow early in the morning.

"Yes, she sounded very serious, you should really go, Seto."

That was by far the last thing he wanted to do, but what choice did he have. He was a part of this team of weirdoes, or at least he had to pretend to be.

"Fine," he said grumpily "but you stay here, Mokuba."

"What, no! I wanna come. I…" he started to protest, but Kaiba interrupted him immediately.

"You have school tomorrow and who knows how long the geek-meeting is going to take. Once they start talking it's quite difficult to stop them, so you stay here. Watch your movie and go to bed, understood?"

"Yes, Seto" Mokuba mumbled and sat on the couch looking disappointed, but this time Kaiba did not care, it was the right thing to do.

He took out his cell and called his assistant. "Roland, get the Limo ready"

"Yes, Sir!" came the short reply and five minutes later Kaiba sat in the car on his way to Yugi's home.

* * *

"Kaiba you look like hell." It was the first thing he heard once he entered the game shop and of course it came from Wheeler.

"Right back at you, Wheeler" he replied, but he knew the dog was right. He had seen his reflection in one of the shop windows before he had entered. His dark grey business suit was full of wrinkles from lying on the couch, he wore no tie, his hair was a mess, he was thinner than a few weeks ago and even in the unclear projection of himself in the window he could see the dark circles under his eyes. But actually it fitted; he also felt the way he looked. But that was none of the geeks concern, so he changed the topic.

"So what is this all about, Ishizu?" He asked and directed his glance to the woman standing in the back of the room. Everyone was already there, Yugi, Tristan, Tea, the little blonde brat Rebecca and the mutt. Everyone, except Marik.

"Well as you all maybe have noticed, my brother is not here. A few hours ago he was involved in a car accident and he is currently in a hospital here in Dominio."

Everybody, except Kaiba, looked at her with wide eyes.

"Oh my god" Kaiba heard Tea exclaim "is he all right?"

"He broke one leg and an arm, but besides that he is okay. The bigger problem is that it is probably not a coincidence that my brother had this accident. I think the Seth-Society targeted him, because they knew he would be trying to get into the pyramid, they must have somehow found out that he was part of our team." She sighed and Kaiba could see that she also looked tired and worn out. The accident of her brother must have scared her quite a lot.

"The really have no scruple, huh?" Tristan commented and Yugi nodded.

"Yes and there is another problem," Yugi stated "with just three duelists it will be even more difficult to get to the book and the mirror."

"Yes," Ishizu said and her eyes brightened a bit "but fortunately I found a replacement already. She is a very skilled duelist. I met her at a Duel Monster Tournament in Egypt that she won and we have been in loose contact ever since. She called me today to catch up on things and I took the opportunity to ask her to join us. She is trustworthy, very nice and currently even in the Top Ten of the Duel Monsters World Ranking. She knows about the risks, but she was still willing to help."

"That's awesome, finally another woman on the team, I am definitely surrounded by too many boys." Tea exclaimed and Kaiba just rolled his eyes "What is her name?"

"Her name is Kisara and she should be here any minute now, as I invited her over as well to meet you all."

Kaiba started coughing, did she just say Kisara? That could not be, she could not be… But he did not have time to order his thoughts as the bell rang and Yugi's grandfather opened the door to let a young woman enter the room. She had pale skin, bright blue eyes and shining white hair that smelled like Jasmine. She looked exactly like the Kisara that had died 5000 years ago, the Kisara that he saw nearly every night dying in the arms of his ancestor, the Kisara that had told him they would see each other again.

He felt his knees go weak…

* * *

**Okay, if you made it till here, thanks for reading. This is the longest chapter so far, and I hope you did not find it boring. Thanks to everyone who reviewed the last chapter, please keep on doing so, as it gives me extra motivation to publish more chapters. So please let me know, what you think of the story so far and if you want it to continue. I am also always open for suggestions, corrections or other ideas, so please don't hesitate to write me! **

**Greets P.**


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